Big Storms

Big storms tend to be overrated and not conducive to good skiing and sometimes produce little or no skiing. I knew this when I blindly packed up my gear on Sunday and made reservations at the Clair Tappen Lodge next to Sugar Bowl resort where I have a midweek season pass. I want to ride chairlifts and ski lots of powder, instead of going backcountry skiing with my buddies at Lassen National Park.

Monday February 16, 2026. The usually two and half hour drive to Sugar Bowl takes ten hours. Highway 20 is closed and I have to turn around and take Highway 174 to Colfax where I drive Interstate 80 to Baxter Road and wait three hours until Caltrans opens the highway. In blowing snow and flat light at Soda Springs, I miss the exit to Sugar Bowl and in a whiteout cruise right past the turnoff to Boreal Ski Resort before I realise I missed the Soda Springs off ramp. I turn around at the Donner Lake turnoff and pull into the Clair Tappen parking lot around five.

Tuesday February 17, 2026. I sleep pretty good in the men’s bunk room despite the hard wind buffeted the old lodge. Around 6:30, I look through the window at thick horizontally falling snow and I doubt I will be skiing today.

I take my time drinking coffee and eating breakfast. The operations manager, Chris at the lodge says that its blowing ninety at the top of KT 22 over at the Palisades Ski Resort. He doesn’t think there will be any skiing today. The Sugar Bowl website reports a delayed opening, so I head down to the parking lot a little after eight and the landscape has drastically changed on account of the three feet of fresh snow. I break my twenty year old shovel on my first dig. It’s still usable but with just half a load. I also break my window scraper, so when I pull out of the parking lot forty five minutes later I head for Soda Springs to buy a new scraper at the store.

Donner Pass road is a whiteout. I see nothing. My side window tells me where where I am on the road. Occasionally, a car coming towards me will appear and it’s not a problem, because we are going so slow.

There isn’t much traffic so I figure Interstate 80 is closed. I buy a scraper at the store and pick up a hitchhiker, Raphael, a Peruvian working at Sugar Bowl on a J1 work visa. He likes Bad Bunny.

It takes more than twenty minutes to drive the four miles to the Sugar Bowl turn. The turnoff is confusing even though there is a truck parked there and plenty of signage. The website says the Gondola is on a wind hold, but the Disney chair is open. That makes no sense. The gondola is in the base, Disney is up on the mountain. The snow falls horizontally at an insane rate. We catch up to some stopped cars, or maybe they’re moving but at a very slow rate.

At the Sugar Bowl parking lot, I decide I’m not skiing today. Raphael hops out and heads for work. The parking lot bus appears. I walk over, its Chris. He opens his window and says, this is the worst visibility I’ve ever driven in. I have to stop completely when it gets bad. A Tesla driving too fast goes around us. He doesn’t believe that the Disney Chair is open either. He says, the Jerome chair is open. I tell him, I’m going back to the lodge.

It’s more slow driving back to the lodge. A truck is buried where it plugged in past the Sugar Bowl parking garage. Two other vehicles are off the road on the right. I miss the Clair Tappen parking lot and have to drive to Norden to turn around. Another Tesla passes driving too fast.

I find the parking lot and promptly plug my van into the pile of snow that has been shovelled into my former parking spot. The temperature is around fifteen degrees, it’s blowing 30 to 50 miles an hour with higher gusts. I hustle up to the Clair Tappen Lodge and close the door behind me.

The others staying at the lodge pepper me with questions. I admit, it was stupid to go out.

The lodge has a cold draft running through it. I put my down coat on and drink coffee. Ben returns from his drive forty-five minutes later. He went out to breakfast at the Old Forty Bar and Grill. He didn’t think there will be any skiing today and didn’t believe the Sugar Bowl website that says the Disney and Jerome Chairs are open. He gets stuck in the Donner Ski Ranch parking lot next to Donner Pass Road. Ben picks up five of the J1 visa holding Peruvian hitchhikers and gets stuck twice. While he’s shovelling a truck plugs into the snow bank across the road from him. It’s an old man who has had a heart attack. He doesn’t seem worried, it’s his third heart attack. A woman who is helping Ben calls for an ambulance and they wait with the man. Eventually the ambulance shows and Ben helps the Paramedics load the victim into the ambulance.

He’s happy to be in the lodge and stays inside for the rest of the day. He says, I regret going out. He thinks the wind is blowing 40 to 50 MPH with higher gusts.

Chris, the operations guy has built fires in the great room and the library. I’m reading news on my computer and Facebooking. Interstate 80 is closed for a hundred miles. Disney chair was open for a while and so was Jerome, but now the whole resort is closed. Boreal is closed. Palisades is closed. All roads to from Truckee are closed.

I’m a 55 year ski bum. I came up to Donner Pass to ski powder. I might be seventy but I still get out there. I love storm skiing and there are some slopes right behind the lodge that look pretty good but I am not going out in these conditions. The snow is probably too deep for skiing, unless it’s really steep. I’ve been out in weather like this in the Arctic many times, but I was not too far from a warm truck or building ever. I can’t remember recreating in the mountains in weather this severe, but I have done avalanche control at Alyeska Ski Resort and a rescue on Peak Three above Anchorage in similar conditions. I ended up shutting the rescue down because everything was a mess. Eleven people were out on the hill and half of them headed out alone. There were no lists, no trail marking and no organisation. It was blowing eighty MPH. Avalanches were coming down in the vicinity of the accident. I took a lot of shit for my decision to shut the rescue down but I have never regretted it. Ben is 34 and has been skiing since he was seven and he’s fired up to ski, but has no interest in skiing behind the Clair Tappen Lodge because of the weather.

We’re hanging out in the library. It’s sometime after noon. Reports of an avalanche show up on Facebook. It’s a large group on Castle Mountain. It’s not too far from here; five, six or at the most seven miles away as the crow flies. There’s four of us in the library. Everyone has an opinion. Why would anyone be out in these conditions? I have no interest in skiing today. What were they thinking?

I read more: it was a guided group of fifteen. Nine are missing. The guides are with Blackbird Mountain Guides. the website says, they’re the most trusted ARAIE (Avalanche Research and Education) Course provider in the US—two years running.

I read the Frog Lake Huts website. I look at the routes to it. I’ve skied Castle Mt, but have never been to the huts. The route I skied was fairly safe until near the top. Ben went to the huts last year. He took the same route as the party of fifteen. He says, They should’ve stayed at Frog lake.

https://www.truckeedonnerlandtrust.org/frog-winter-routes

It’s a miserable evening at the lodge. I can’t put my computer down. Forty-six people are involved in the rescue. I doubt anyone here would have gone out on a rescue. It’d be too dangerous with this weather. We worry for the rescuers as a group. The six survivors are huddled under a tarp beneath trees. The thermometer outside the lodge reads nine degrees Fahrenheit. The wind is still howling and snow falls at an exorbitant rate. There are many posts on Facebook: don’t comment until we have more info, the guides are negligent, why didn’t they stay at the Frog lake Huts, they should’ve had airbags…etc

Wednesday February 18. I don’t sleep well and look for updates on the rescue at regular intervals all night. Thankfully, the rescuers are all safe. In the morning it’s still snowing and blowing but at a lesser rate. I read this lying in bed.

An avid skier, Kurt Gensheimer was leaving the backcountry huts near Castle Peak, California on Sunday, likely just hours before a ski tour group and their guides visited the same spot.

Gensheimer was with another group staying in the Frog Lake huts from Thursday, Feb. 12, to Sunday, Feb. 15, the day the group led by Blackbird Mountain Guides arrived.

Gensheimer is an experienced backcountry skier and is familiar with the Tahoe area, but he is not a guide himself. He co-hosts a podcast called “Mind the Track” with Incline Village resident Tom Beckering, where they discuss outdoor mountain adventures, including skiing.

“I feel horrible for the families, the victims and for everybody who are involved in this rescue effort because it’s going to have a huge impact on the Tahoe community,” said Gensheimer, who lives in Verdi, just across the state line in Nevada.

But he called the incident a “100 percent preventable tragedy.”

After breakfast, I go down to the parking lot. I shovel for forty five minutes and Chris the operations guy from the lodge pulls me and and a few other cars from their parking spots with a strap hooked to his truck.

I get to Sugar Bowl around 9:30. Kevin picks me up in one of the buses that hauls skiers from the parking lot up to the lifts. He says yesterday was the hardest day of driving he’s ever had. He couldn’t see anything.

I ski most of the day. I don’t get one effortless powder turn and the wind is steady at 25 MPH and snow falls all day. The visibility goes from bad to horrible for all my skiing. Everyone I speak to is upset about the nine avalanche deaths. Most are pointing fingers at the guides. The Sierra Avalanche Center did a write up on the avalanche but has been taken it down.

People are driving way too fast in the parking lot. I didn’t realise it was ski week and all the kids were out of school.

Back at the lodge, I try to write something about the avalanche, but new information barrages me making it impossible for me to focus. The group included nine super moms, with connections or children in the Sugar Bowl Academy. Sounds like they were wealthy. The storm has intensified and the wind is crying. I give Su, the Peruvian Chef a twenty dollar tip.

Thursday February 19. I sleep poorly, get up early and try to write something. I’m consumed by the avalanche. I’m pissed off. I backcountry ski and I hate that no one skis, one a time, I hate that no one spreads out when they’re ascending, I hate that many are using radios to keep track of their partners. There is no etiquette in the backcountry and the guides on this avalanche teach the avalanche safety classes.

Sugar Bowl is closed today. No skiing. I have a crew I’m hanging with at the lodge. Ben, Wendy, Alan, and Chris and we have some camaraderie. I keep trying to write something. I can’t find the words. I end up posting on Facebook too much. More information comes out. Most people post different theories on how the group could’ve survived. Most comments say, they should’ve stay at the Frog Lake Huts.

It’s a long day at the Clair Tappen. I leave once to go down and shovel out my van and move it to a new location in the parking lot. A new guy, Josh shows up at the lodge. He’s a psychotherapist and a hoot. It’s sad night but we try to make the most of it.

There are articles on Facebook about criminal negligence charges against the Blackbird Mountain Guides. There is more info on the nine super moms. Some are definitely wealthy and high powered and all are experienced expert skiers. There are many theories being floated around about the pressure on the guides from the women and the need to get out from the Frog lake Huts.

Friday February 20. The sky is mostly clear on Friday morning. I don’t think I’m going to ski. When I get down to Donner Pass Road, I have to wait because the traffic is heavy. As I stand there waiting to cross the road to the parking lot, I decide not to ski. It’s too busy. I want to go home. I shovel my van out and Chris stops traffic so I can get onto the road. The traffic is backed up the three miles to I 80 and then down the off ramp towards Truckee.

I’m discouraged and I’m depressed when I hit Interstate 80. I spent six hundred dollars and didn’t get one good high quality powder turn.

I am tired and mad when I get home. I should stayed home this week and went up to Lassen today. I have three friends up there and they say the skiing mostly sucked Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, but the Lassen backcountry was good Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

People Magazine interview guide and avalanche instructor, Richard Bothwell. He says it would be pretty reasonable for backcountry skiers to go out on the day of the avalanche or in almost any conditions with the proper gear and training. He was one hundred miles away at Mt Lassen when the avalanche occurred.

A retired Canadian ski and alpine guide asked a few typical questions. He wasn’t following the news and didn’t know much about it. He asked, why did they leave Frog Lake? Why were they found in close proximity to each other? He also said, if they had to leave Frog Lake, they should’ve broke up the eleven clients into four groups: each with a guide and set. out from Frog Lake, twenty minutes apart.

It’s been a week since the avalanche. The snow lab near the Clair Tappen Lodge says it snowed 111 inches in five days, but really it was only four days. It’s an historic storm, one of the biggest ever in the Tahoe area. I’ve run through the whole range of emotions about the avalanche. I believe the group should’ve stayed at the Frog Lake Huts and that there was no way out without some kind of catastrophe. I believe the guides are ultimately responsible, but not criminally negligent. I imagine that the group dynamics were awful and I wouldn’t want to ski with that big of group. I can only wonder, how and who made the decision to leave Frog Lake with three feet of fresh snow and all of the wind.

The blue dot is where the avalanche occurred.

Castle Peak Trailhead (3.5 miles one way, 1,500 feet gain, 1,100 descent)